Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Social welfare

  • Maija Dahlberg

More human rights at the cost of the state sovereignty? Clarifying the scope of applicability of Article 8 ECHR to social welfare benefits in Beeler v Switzerland

February 21, 2023

By Maija Dahlberg In Beeler v Switzerland the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had to balance between its far-reaching human rights interpretations and the principle of state sovereignty. Concretely, the case concerned an interesting interpretative question whether to extend the scope of applicability of Article 8 ECHR to social welfare benefits.

  • Dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf & Yannick Schoog

Too Old to Deserve State Support? – Šaltinytė v. Lithuania: Age Discrimination in Socio-Economic Policy

December 22, 2021

By Dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf and Yannick Schoog Introduction On the 26th of October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; the Court) answered the question of whether or not a fixed age limit to qualify for a housing subsidy for ‘young families’ was discriminatory in the negative. The case of Šaltinytė v. […]

  • Guest Blogger

Gender-based violence triggers differential treatment in housing benefit case

December 02, 2019

By Katarina Frostell, Project Manager and PhD Candidate, Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, Finland On 24 October 2019, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in J.D. and A. v. the United Kingdom, in the so-called bedroom tax case. In its judgment, the Court applied a discrimination analysis on the reduction […]